According to Akimov, the recent situation with Huawei is the result of a technological war between Beijing and Washington, which is going against the background of the countries’ trade dispute that started last June. The deputy prime minister said that escalation of the conflict in the technological sphere would affect the global economy and could even lead to the technological fragmentation of the world.
Last week, US President Donald Trump issued an executive order adding Huawei, which has been accused of working for Chinese national spy agencies, and its 70 affiliates to a trade blacklist, thereby restricting its activity in the country.
US companies are required to acquire permission to trade with the Chinese firm. As a result, Google had to suspend business operations with Huawei, including the transfer of hardware, software and technical services, except that publicly available via open source licensing.
In June 2018, Trump announced 25 per cent tariffs on $50 billion worth of Chinese imports in a bid to balance the trade deficit. Since then the sides have exchanged several rounds of duties.
On 10 May, Washington raised tariffs on another $200 billion worth of Chinese goods to 25 per cent due to an impasse in trade talks. Beijing retaliated by announcing tariff hikes of up to 25 per cent on $60 billion worth of US imports starting in June.
